How to Register Your Business

 Have you ever wondered how businesses register their names? You can  now check a name online for possible use as a business name. The New Jersey State Business Gateway Service has a free online search feature here. Checking Google is also a recommended site to get an understanding of similar names to ones you like.  The IRS does not accept punctuation in the title of a business of any kind, including apostrophes, except a dash (-). Asking an attorney to check a prospective name is also a good idea.

It's important to register the name of a new business to get a national or federal tax ID number and pay taxes. This exact situation happened to me last  week as I registered the name of my new business. Your banker can help you set up a sole proprietorship, and draw up papers for Limited Partnerships and more complicated businesses.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal happens to address this very topic of  choosing business names and the legal problems that can arise if names are repeated or even close to another name. Many big businesses monitor the market to be sure their names aren't misused around the world as well. Perhaps McDonald Corp.'s hounding of the "McDonald Castle" owners in Scotland was going a bit too far in the direction of reputation management.